academic curiosity

"Can you see?" Lily stood afar and watched him take a hesitant step forward. She and Ada had spent the better part of a half hour wrapping Dale tightly in the remnants of his bed sheets. This scene did not ease the minds of the other Gryffindors (there is that frightening Viking-looking girl and the other one who spends hours tinkering on cardboard, tying up the small boy who always is wearing the suit under his robe).

"Can you see, Dale?" Lily repeated.

"Sure!" he replied. "Where are you, again?"

"I´m at 5 o´clock, six feet away," Lily explained. She fancied she could see his look of disgust at her answer through his sheets.

"That´s great," he said. "I have an idea..." he began. "Why don´t we tie a part of my sheet to you so I won´t always be looking for you guys?"

`Okay!" Lily tied a loose piece from his stomach to her arm.

Nearby Joe and Alia were dancing around in their own improvised costumes. Joe was Muggle born and had always been a werewolf and was one again this year. They had fitted Alia´s bed sheets with two well-placed holes and created a ghost costume for her. While they all thought it was pretty glum she was thrilled with it. "No one is going to recognize us!" she exclaimed. "Now I can tell Omar the truth if he asks me if I think his new hair permanent looks good!"

They walked quickly to the great hall, with Dale trudging behind Lily, the smell of good things was wafting down all the corridors. The house ghosts were looking mighty sorry. A soggy Filch shook a fist at them, but they ran away (Dale being dragged along) before he could do anything.

Ada had downright refused any involvement in the Halloween costumes, but she walked alongside them and pretended they weren´t being odd. Lily had dressed as a skeleton. Her mother had sent it to her. She even had a skull mask that was pretty scary in her opinion.

"How are you gonna eat?" Ada asked Dale haughtily.

He pointed to his face and a large hole opened. They could hear him laughing at her.

They ran full tilt toward the Gryffindor table, shoveling things on to plates as the feast had already began in their tardiness.

Lily saw that Dumbledore approved of their costumes. He was pointing them out to Flitwick.

Alia, quickly adapting to her ghost attire spoon fed herself roasted pumpkin through one of her eye holes.

Being unrecognizable behind a mask, Lily felt a great liberation and began talking loudly and waving her silverware around menacingly. At one point she was drawn into a battle with a few third year boys and at another junction a few Hufflepuffs came over and asked her dress them up too.

Lily conjured up some white paint and smeared over the other a Hufflepuff girl named Nann´s face. A few bits of blood and a engorgement charm made Nann Green a pretty intimidating vampire and a worthy member of their entourage.

She sat with them and as they filled themselves to the absolute brim Alia asked, "Okay, what now?"

Lily paused and looked at the blind Dale. Most of the school was milling about or leaving the great hall.

"We got our treats, it´s time for tricks!" they could hear his muffled cry.

Surprised, Lily and Ada immediately agreed to the proposed marauding.

"And maybe a little more treats in the process!" Lily exclaimed hopefully as they all uprooted themselves from the table and as one sticky collective moved though the corridors.

"I always wondered where the kitchens were!" Joe said.

Dale tripped behind Lily, feeling the tug on her arm she stopped and helped him up. Nann suggested, "We could hide and jump out and scare Peeves!"

"There´s and idea, let´s throw ourselves at the mercy of that horrific fiend!" Dale rasped.

"Hey! I hear somebody!" Ada hissed, she pulled them aside and they all silently listened as the approaching footsteps passed.

Lily leaned out, through her mask she saw a few cloaks fly around the corner.

"Who was it?" Nann asked Lily.

"Don't know... Revelers like ourselves likely," she replied. "Let´s go down... I bet the kitchens are below us!"

As they took off Dale began, "Makes sense to me- WOOOOAAAH!"

They all flew down a short flight of steps, Dale flailing behind Lily, and tried to get as far below the main floor as possible, no one having any clue where they were headed.

"This is a bit like the dungeons," commented Joe.

"Except this ain't them," Ada replied suspiciously. "I bet this is about where the Slytherin common room is at. I always see em coming to and from here now that I think on it!

"Well then, QUIET!" Nann hushed them.

"I have an idea!" Ada whispered happily.

They all turned to her except Dale, who was facing a coat of arms conversationally. She grinned ear to ear. Lily hadn´t seen her looking so excited since last year...

"Let´s throw eggs at em!"

"That sounds funny," Joe agreed.

"Let´s find the kitchen then!" Nann said.

"Oh, no," Dale mumbled under his sheets to the coat of arms.

"It´ll be okay," Lily whispered to him. "Eggs wash off. Besides, we´ll only hit the nasty, mean ones!"

"That´s what I´m afraid of!" Dale bellowed.

They followed Joe and his nose led them to a large portrait of fruits.

"This had gotta be it!" Ada cried, clapping Joe on the back.

"Yeah, but what about a password?" Alia asked.

"We´ll be here all night!" Ada stamped her foot, switching to anger. Lily heard the stamp echo. Then it echoed again, and again and...

"Someone´s coming I think!" Lily hissed to them.

Panicked, they ran in all different directions. Lily, with Dale flying pele behind her, landed in a scant shadowy corner. She could see that Ada was ducking behind a sculpture.

The great thing about Hogwarts was that there always was a sculpture or tapestry to hide yourself behind.

Lily watched as a smallish figure came their way. She sighed with relief. "Dale, it´s just a student!"

The boy ran up to the portrait of fruit and wiggled his fingers at the pear in the bowl. Suddenly it morphed into a door handle. The portrait swung open and he stepped in and less than a minute he came out again holding a fair-sized basket filled with good smells.

And another tiny figure followed behind his heels.

It was the first time Lily had ever seen a house elf. Dressed only in a tea cozy bearing the Hogwarts´ crest it patted the boy lovingly and waved him away like a concerned mother. The house elf looked left then right. Then it shut the portrait behind itself and the boy disappeared further down the corridor to Lily and Dale´s left.

"Dale, were going to follow him!"

"What?" Who?" he asked but Lily flew out into the hall and ran after the boy. When she saw his figure far ahead she slowed and preceded more quietly.

"What´s going ON?" Dale hissed angrily. He was yanked by his stomach to the right as Lily followed the boy up a flight of long slender stairs. This was a part of the castle she had never even been to or imagined.

"Why are we going this way? What happened to Ada and the others?" Dale hissed.

"Were following the student who came out of the Kitchens! The others will probably be looking for eggs to throw at Slytherins... You didn´t want to do that anyway!"

`But why are we following this student?"

"I want to know who it is, silly!" Lily patted him and continued up the stairs.

The stair ended rather abruptly around a sharp bend. She was happy that the boy they followed was already clear out the door or should would have blown there cover and ran smack into him.

She stepped out the door and into the cool night. The light of the waning moon revealed the small figure hip hopping along through the grounds.

`What´s going on? Why are we outside now?" Dale asked out loud.

`Ssh..." Lily reprimanded. "He´s not very far off from us!"

"Can you tell who it is, yet? It´s cold out here!" he whispered.

"Would you like me to untie you? You can go back inside..."

"Oh, and leave me to stumble right into Filch? That´s the worst idea of the night so far, and that´s saying something!!" Dal replied.

"C´mon!" Lily flew across the grounds after the boy, Dale frantically clutching for her. They ran hand in hand until Lily suddenly stopped them.

"What?" Dale asked quietly. "Is it a teacher or something?"

"No..."

"Then what´s wrong?"

"The guy were following... He´s heading into the Whomping Willow!"

"What do you mean? Is he trying to climb it or something? What a fool!"

"No! He just walked IN TO IT. In to the tree itself! It opened up for him! It didn´t even take a swipe... Who is this kid? Maybe it´s not a student after all..."

"This is starting to freak me out, Lily!" Dale grasped her had more tightly. "Let´s move..."

"Okay!" Lily agreed. She turned about and led them back the way they came. They´re going was slow as it was easier for Dale to go up the stairs than down them. As they hit the bottom of the stair they heard people entering the door behind and above them.

"I hear more than one!" Dale whispered.

"We can run for it or try and hide!" Lily gasped. In a matter of seconds the people above would turn the corner and see them there!

"Hide!" Dale yanked her arm.

Lily led them quickly around the foot of the stairs and under. There was a tiny crawl space there where disgusting things lived.

"Lily..."

"What?"

"There is something crawling up my leg..."

`Oh, me too..." she whined.

They both covered their mouth holes to their masks, as the people climbed down and went through the door. Lily saw the same fleeting glimpse of capes fluttering. But this time she also saw faces and heard voices.

"Pettigrew, could you hurry it up? We need to reach the astronomy tower in less than five minutes!"

"Yeah, maybe we should just leave you behind!"

"Noooooo! I´ll be quick... I just stubbed my toe in the shack... It hurts!"

When the voices disappeared with their owners both Lily and Dale cried, "THEM!"

"Did he mean Hagrid´s hut, do you think?" Lily asked Dale.

"Maybe... But I doubt Hagrid would let that lot in at this hour! Maybe he meant the tree!"

"We have to keep following, you do realize?" Lily asked.

"Yes. Just try and not let me swing into any walls, okay?"

Lily and Dale had the luxury of being able to run as the trio ahead were obviously in too much a hurry to notice pursuers.

"I know a faster way to the astronomy tower!" Dale suddenly said.

"How do you know where we are?" Lily asked skeptically.

"Well were on the side of the castle with the Whomping Willow. Turn left twice and if there´s a stair take it!"

Lily agreed to this very reluctantly, even when she saw he was right she didn´t want to leave direct pursuit.

"Just go! This way is so much faster and we´ll be able to get a good spying spot before they come upon us!"

Lily followed Dale´s deft directions and after the many flights of stairs they ran up she was quite winded. They reached the Astronomy Tower and crept around.

Lily´s eyes were just adjusting to the light when she heard a scream. She saw a white face, mouth gaping in horror at the opposite end of the room. Under the moon light, Severus Snape was screaming and backing away from HER in terror.

Lily, after a few seconds of feeling similar terror at the sight of his sallow face in the moon light, she chuckled a bit and ducked into the shadow. Dale was clasped to her tightly in the darkness. Severus was moaning in fright by one of the long open look outs.

"What happened... Whawashat?" Dale gasped in fright.

Before Lily could explain she saw the three miscreants from their house enter the tower looking quite smug about something. Peter was the last in and panting. He leaned against the wall, terribly close to Lily and Dale, but didn´t see them. Lily, in her skull mask backed further away from where he stood.

James and Sirius rounded on Severus, who now looked shocked and frightened.

`WHAT... WHAT IS THIS?" Severus shouted, pointing accusingly at James.

What Lily saw next turned her blood cold.